california burning. new and fast-burning wildfires forcing thousands to leave their homes. the pictures are as dramatic as are the stories. donald trump is an entertainer. >> throwing down ahead of this week's gop debate, the candidates pull no punches. how ugly might it get? the huge gold mine spill in a colorado river. environmental activist erin brockovich said we're not getting the whole story from the government. i'll talk to her about the toxic situation. some of america's most lovable characters get a new show. we'll tell you if it's worth watching.

hey there, everyone, high noon in the east, 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." the latest poll numbers are in, and it is a horse race. the "washington post" abc news poll out just a few hours ago shows hillary clinton leading donald trump by just three points, 46% to 43% among registered voters. clinton is looking a lot better within her own party, though. a new poll finds her likability at 75%. could the e-mail controversy not be hurting clinton as much as previously thought? the "washington post" reports today that the tech company that managed her service says, it was not wiped, meaning tens of thousands of e-mails potentially could be recovered. meanwhile, like prize fighters before a bout, the gop contenders spent the weekend taking verbal jabs against each other ahead of wednesday night's

debate. >> donald trump is an entertainer. and i think i am a leader. >> we're going to make sure everybody in america knows donald trump is a fake. >> we need people with an aggressive tone, and we need people with tremendous energy. and i'm your candidate, okay? >> well, that is still a long way off. as a front-runner, trump is center stage at the debate. with carly fiorina joining the fray in the number 11 spot, it could be quite a show. joining me now "new york times" political reporter gejeremy peters. jeremy, welcome to you. i'm glad to talk with you. before i get the gop gloom, though, i'm wondering about the new report on hillary clinton's e-mail server. if it wasn't wiped clean, how does that change the narrative for her? does it make it better or worse? >> i think what we're headed toward is kind of a reset when she testifies before congress in october. that's really going to be a huge

moment for both republicans and democrats. republicans, you know, on the one hand, will really have to show that this is not the witch hunt that hillary clinton and her allies say that it is. they're going to have to exercise a measure of restraint and make it look like they're not really going after her in a prosecutorial way. and she has performed well in these types of settings before. when she testified before congress the last time, i think it was a real moment that showed she's not going to let people run over her. and if she kind of demonstrates that strength, it could be very, very good for her. >> yeah, she's been good under pressure on the public stage so far, that's for sure. let's get to the msnbc poll numbers. new likability numbers with democrats, sky-high for clinton. does that still suggest to you that she is the inevitable nominee? >> you know, that is a really interesting question. the 75% positive reading really

jumps out. compare that to bernie sanders, and it puts it in perspective. there's a lot of energy and view around bernie sanders, but that's not the majority of the base. >> your colleague's headline, donald trump gets rock star greeting in iowa. and he writes, what planners did not anticipate is the portable mob scene that characterizes the candidacy of donald trump. forget the mob, does any of this translate into caucusgoers? does trump have enough of an operation on the ground? >> that is unclear. right now in iowa, that does not appear to be the case. i've covered a lot of these trump events. they're pretty much all like what tripp describes in his article. it's a show. people go there and expect to be entertained and they are. carly fiorina is right, he is an

entertainer. the question is whether or not people want an entertainer as their president. i don't know that he gets over that hurdle. >> i want to get to your article now. many of the gop candidates, they want to invoke the name of ronald reagan. but their messages hardly suggest the sunny optimism associated with the 40th president. you noted some recent quotes from ted cruz and donald trump, and here are the highlights. >> we are here today because our country is in crisis. >> we have people that don't have it. we have people that are morally corrupt. we have people that are selling this country down the drain. >> we are saying today unprecedented assault on freedom. >> we're going to hell. our country's going to hell. frank doesn't like the word hell, but we're going to hell. >> who do you think is the gloom iest and does it have gop strategists concerned? >> it really does. if you talk to republicans who know what it takes to win elections, they'll tell you, americans never bought a product

that made them feel worse about themselves. ultimately that's what's underneath the message that donald trump and ted cruz are pushing. they push the notion that america is an exceptional country, but they say it's in the toilet. ted cruz warns of america's -- americans being killed because of this iran deal that the president has signed. i think that when voters go into that voting booth, they will respond most effectively to the kinds of candidates like bush, rubio, like reagan was, who put out a message that is more upbeat and optimistic. >> jeremy, stay here a second, because i do want to ask you about a new report on the cracks in the trump veneer. does the fiorina camp, do they

expect fireworks at this debate with donald trump? >> you know, they've said we'll see about that. carly fiorina was actually asked yesterday whether donald trump was lowering the level of discourse in the 2016 presidential race. here's how she responded. >> i think donald trump is an entertainer. and i think i am a leader. and so what i do is talk to the american people about the issues they care about. and i think they hear what i'm talking about. we've been at this now, i don't know, six minutes, half the questions have been about donald trump. voters never ask me about donald trump. they don't ask me about donald trump. >> now, carly fiorina was also asked if she would respond if donald trump would go after her in the upcoming debate, and she just said to us, we'll see. you've seen how i've hammed him so far. >> there's a cue.

i think she probably be firm and be her matter of fact style. thank you for that. jeremy, on the heels of that, i want to get to the new article printed in the "usa today" on trump's fiorina comment. the gop women expressing concerns about trump's remarks including tim reynolds, and joanie ernst, the top female elected officials in iowa. the last straw for some other women they talked to as well. do you think this may be a tipping point? >> you know, i don't know that we've started to see the crest in trump's popularity happen just yet. every time we try to predict that it's happened, we've been wrong. i will say, though, that his popularity among all sorts of gop segments, you know, women, evangelicals, social conservatives, is pretty uniform. that hasn't started to crack yet, but, you know, ultimately, i come back to this fact that i

think is one of the most striking about the 2012 election, is that mitt romney won white women with a pretty considerable majority. but he lost the election by more than 5 million votes. and democrats are so far ahead in that gender gap right now, it's going to be very hard to see how republicans make up that gap. especially with the first woman on the ticket. >> final questions here to you. what are your expectations for wednesday's debate and who do you think stands to gain the most and who stands to lose the most? >> so, it's a real decisive moment, i think, for scott walker. hess candidacy has been struggling. he's really kind of had a hard time proving that he's worthy of all this attention that he's been receiving. so he has -- this is kind of a make-or-break moment for him. also, it's one for chris christie as well. you're going to see, i think,

chris christie who is by most accounts a very skilled debater, very skilled public speaker. he'll be one to watch. and i also think that everybody is going to be going after donald trump. we've seen the gloves come off in the last few weeks, these republican presidential contenders are no longer afraid to go after him. and this very well could turn into open season on donald trump. >> okay. jeremy peters, great to talk with you. thanks so much. >> thanks for having me. northern california, state of emergency in at least two counties as the so-called valley fire explodes in size. four firefighters have been injured battling that fire. now spanning 40,000 acres north of san francisco. it's one of at least 13 other fires raging across the golden state. nbc's gadi schwartz is in middle town where the valley fire is burning out of control. gadi? >> reporter: as you can see, the fire still smoldering behind me. this used to be a row of houses. it has been completely

obliterated. last night this was an absolute inferno. we got in about midnight. this is main street middletown. there's all kinds of torving going on, there's house after house, building after building that's going up in flames. all through town we're hearing explosions. those are propane tanks going up. we've heard a dozen of those explosions so far. right now they're calling a few firefighters back over the fire radio. we've heard them calling firefighters back after structures like this are just so fully engulfed in flames, there's no saving them. four firefighters who were burped earlier after being caught by a flare-up were rushed to the hospital where they're now suffering from second-degree burns. while an army of their fellow firefighters are on the lines across the state at the over 60,000-acre view fire. >> there's so many homes

leveled, burned to the ground. >> reporter: thousands of evacuees praying fire crews can save them from the catastrophic damage seen in middleton, california. it's sad to see the selectivity of this fire. you'll see five houses completely gone, one standing, and then more houses completely obliterat obliterated. alex, i want to show you one more thing. these fire hydrants all around town, we're told have gone dry. they actually went dry right in the middle of the firefight last night. which is making it very difficult for firefighters as they have to bring in every drop of water that they put on this fire. alex? >> that is a nightmare. gadi schwartz. more than 12,000 arrived in germany saturday. they're putting up tents but say their capacity to house the newcomers from hungary via austria is stretching the limit. they're calling for more help from other places other than

germany. trains plan to move the migrants to other parts of the country today. james blake said the nypd officer responsible for taking him down earlier this week should no longer have a badge. blake was standing outside a hotel when he was tackled by an undercover officer. the officer said he thought blake was a suspect in a credit card investigation. >> i think it's more about the procedure. that there was completely unnecessary, whether i was a criminal or not, whether i was the person they were looking for. i still don't think the person they were looking for deserves to be treated the way i was treated. that's the bigger issue now is correcting that kind of behavior. >> the officer has been placed on administrative leave pending an ongoing investigation. the county clerk from kentucky who was jailed for six days after refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples is due back at work tomorrow. in her absence, deputy clerks

have been issuing licenses and say they would continue to do so. the judge warned davis in his release order that there would be consequences if she interfered with the issuances of licenses when she returned to work. this river was turned murky yellow. environmental activist erin brockovich says the epa is not being totally honest about this toxic mess. just pick a size. small, medium, large and extra large. if you need less data, pick small. if you need more, go with extra large-- a whopping 12 gigs for $80 a month plus $20 per phone. pick a size. change it up anytime. it's the simple way to get the best network. and now, get up to $400 when you switch. only at verizon.

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a new associated press report said the epa is avoiding a repeat of the wastewater spill it caused last month in colorado. millions of gallons of contaminated water spewed into western state rivers following a breach at the gold king mine. my next guest said the agency is not being honest about how much of that toxic wastewater actually leaked.

and joining me now is environmental activist erin brockovich, known for the oscar-winning movie named after her. you've seen this damage firsthand. you recently met with the navaho nation leaders and the farmers affected by this spill. tell me what it is like out there right now. >> it's actually really concerning. unless you're there, you don't get the magnitude of what's happening. a spill in the river had been leaking years before they had a breach. and it continues to leak. and they're really giving out false information that the water is all clear. and it's not. when you get out to the navaho nation and they're starting to do their own independent testing, because there's such a breach in trust, and they're still getting levels that aren't even acceptable for the livestock. so the farmers have shut off irrigation, they feel a great despair, a lot of angst. and they're not getting any

answers. the epa basically said we've done our job, so have a nice day. it's very disturbing, to be honest with you. >> we're talking about the epa. their job as their description, environmental protection agency, they first tell us the spill is a million gallons, later they say it's three times that amount. as you say, they're not being truthful. what aren't they telling us? >> they're not telling us a lot. not only about the animus river spill, but they're not telling us about a whole lot of other things going on around the country. i don't know if they're trying to cover their tracks or it's the oops moment. it's become inexcusable behavior. it's of national concern. i think it's highly alarming. originally when the spill first happened, their quote was, we're not worried about it because it's already a dead river. that's because you already killed it because you weren't cleaning up the mine pollution. for them it became, well, if it's not a source of water and

it's already a dead river, we're not going to be that concerned. so this is the problem. i'm baffled. i think that all of us should be paying a whole lot more attention to this. because it's happening everywhere. we just had another river spill in ohio. the water's the same color as you see on the animus river. in upstate new york they're clearly allowing dioxane into a tributary that is feeding the hudson river and is a drinking water supply. i think they're covering their tracks. they've lied for 20-plus years and now they don't know what to do. >> to add to that, the residents affected by the spills say, they're not even communicating with us. we find out about the spill 24 hours later thanks to the media. does the epa not have a system in place to communicate properly with people affected by toxic spills? >> i don't think they have that protocol at all, which is probably why they've called off

these cleanup on these other ten abandoned sites that are ready to breach. and they don't -- first of all, they're already there cleaning it up. it's during that cleanup process that they're breaking containment zones because they don't have a protocol, and because they don't have a procedure. they never come back in and communicate what's happening to the wildlife and the health and welfare of all these people that live on some 35,000-plus super fund sites in this country. and so it's a bad time for them to decide, well, we're going to just not work on these ten mines that are getting ready to breach. they have 500,000 abandoned mines that they have to get to. here's the thing, they've known for years -- years -- that this condition exists. so i think that there is a huge failure within this agency, there's a huge breakdown, there's enormous distrust between the people and what this agency is doing.

and frankly, i hate to say it, they're not protecting our waterways and we actually have a real problem. >> what the epa says is that the threat has eased. it is now allowing treatment plants to draw water from the rivers again. what do you say to that? >> i say you need to be really careful. i absolutely don't trust that statement. i get people -- thousands and thousands of people, and i track this water across the country, and i can tell you specifically, because i'm on the ground where they're missing. what they've done is they're comfortable because it's back to what they call pre-spill shall levels. well, pre-spill levels where it was still leaching hundreds of thousands of gallons into the river is not acceptable. those are levels that could still be too high. but they're comfortable with that. and this notion that the epa has in their head that the solution to pollution is dilution is bull. and it's not -- so it's not acceptable. they're just resting on their

laurels that it was pre-spill. and they pack up and go away. over and over and over again. in the end, it's not working out. and somebody has to really start speaking out and putting some people's feet to the fire, especially this agency. you get out here and you do your job and you clean up what is the most important thing to all of us, and that is our right to clean water. >> erin, i'll ask you one more question, and that is, there is still a level of uncertainty about the long-term dangers on public health and the environment. what are your concerns in this regard, and what do you want to see the epa do, or do you think it's too late? >> well, listen, you know, we're always going to get into the scientific arguments. the first thing we have to do is stop politicizing this issue. and having this battle. we have pollution problems in our water. no matter what the levels are, over long term it could be harmful to people. here's why you don't know that

information, mainly the epa, because you don't come back in and study the health and the welfare of people who have lived on these sites and been exposed to these pollutants. that is one of the problems. i think it is possibly too late. i think that we have to now look at this bigger picture, the mess that's been left and begin to find solutions, stop the argument whether it does or doesn't hurt you. none of us wants to drink poison. by the way, you're destroying the fish life, you're destroying a food chain, and it's enough. i think it could be too late. i think it's time for revamping the system. it's time to stop the political b.s., and this argument. this is the most valuable resource that we have. it's becoming a commodity. we better jump in there and start finding solutions. for me, i've seen the epa agency's failures for over 20 years and i think it's too late and we're going to have to get mean and down to some business and start dealing with this issue. it's really a national crisis. >> erin brockovich, awfully glad for your voice on this.

>> thank you. nice to see you. thank you. >> you, too. all grown up and back on primetime. a look at the fall tv season and what you should look for. hey babe, last one home cooks? ♪ ♪ ♪ another tie. order in? next time i drive. the right-sized nissan rogue. ♪ my name is phil zietlow, and i've been an engineer on the cheerios team for 51 years.

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spiriva helps me breathe better. to learn about spiriva respimat slow-moving mist, ask your doctor or visit spirivarespimat.com let's go to today's number ones. the first sunday of the nfl season. and that means high hopes for fans of all 32 teams. although, some hopes are higher than others. facebook analyzed comments on official team pages to determine the most optimistic and least optimistic nfl fans. kansas city chiefs have the rosiest outlook on the season. the only undefeated team in the preseason. the miami dolphin followers are almost as cheery about their team. the minnesota vikings have the third most positive fans. conversely, san diego fans are the most pessimistic. new england fans were second most down about their team, but that was before tom brady's suspension got the heave-ho. the pittsburgh steelers fans

were the third least optimistic. today is grandparents today. >> look here. dumb, dumber, dumber, and the big dummy. >> tyler perry is a matriarch with a lot of sass. she makes seven on the list of the greatest grandparents in the movies. you have to go back to 1980 for the top grandparents, katherine hepburn and henry fonda in "on golden pond." i have the longest legs of the models in america. >> lauren williams of houston is 6'4" tall with legs 49 inches long. the longest legs for a model in the u.s., she hopes it will give her a leg up on the competition. those are your number ones. l tie you think your car smells fine, but your passengers smell this... eliminate odors you've gone noseblind to for up to 30 days with the febreze car vent clip

break out the febreze, and [inhale/exhale mnemonic] breathe happy. i work on the cheerios team. and when i found out that my daughter-in-law, joyce, can't eat gluten, we found a way to remove the grains that contain gluten, from the naturally gluten free oats that cheerios are made of. so now we can have cheerios together, anytime.

at ally bank no branches equalsit's a fact.. kind of like mute buttons equal danger. ...that sound good? not being on this phone call sounds good. it's not muted. was that you jason? it was geoffrey! it was jason. it could've been brenda. welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." donald trump is shaking up new

england. a new cbs news poll shows trump with support of 40% of the state's republican voters. ben carson weighing in at 12%. the leading gop candidates will take to the debate stage this week in the second republican debate of the 2016 campaign. there will be 11 candidates on this stage. among them, donald trump and ben carson. both made appearances on the sunday morning talk shows. >> we have to get competent people in office. if you put competent people in office, really competent people, because we need the best, if you look at places like china, they have superstars at their positions. they arrive there at different methods. they arrive by being smart. we arrive there for, i don't know, hard to believe some of the people we have in office. >> are you too nice to be president? >> well, i don't think so. i don't think there's anything wrong with being nice. but you have to recognize that, you know, my life is multi-faceted.

growing up having multiple jobs, experiencing every level, socioeconomic level in our country. spending multiple years in corporate america. >> kristen welker is at the white house this afternoon. good day to you, my friend. is what we saw this morning a prelude to wednesday's debate? >> reporter: i think it's a little bit of a prelude, alex. i'll be curious to see if there isn't more sparring between donald trump and ben carson. of course, you saw a little bit of that this past week. they are the two top candidates in the gop field. the other thing i'll be looking for is to see if donald trump puts some meat on the bones of the policies he's been talking about. you heard him there just say the answer to reforming campaign finance, for example, is to put good people in positions of power. that's not really a policy position. so i think voters are going to want to hear some more specifics from donald trump. we are entering into the fall campaign season. and so some of this heated

rhetoric isn't going to quite cut it. as we get closer and closer to some of these early voting states. the other thing that i'll be looking very closely for, alex, is to see jeb bush more aggressively goes after donald trump. he's ramped up his rhetoric against donald trump in recent weeks, and pushing back harder. will we see that on the debate stage? and then more broadly, if you look at some of the polls, the one you just cited, for example, it is clear voters have a real appetite for washington outsiders right now. the question is, can some of the more establishment candidates start to break through? can they make the case, for example, that they can shake up washington? i think those will be some of the key questions as we head into the second gop debate, alex. >> jeb bush, bobby jindal also lobbed some fireworks at donald trump. carly fiorina, do you think the emergence of fiorina adds to the

contest? do you think she might be a threat to trump's lock on the lead? >> reporter: i think she has shaken up the gop field, because she's really one of the candidates who is the most aggressively going after trump. and taking counterpunches at trump. you had donald trump say this past week, look at that face when it comes to carly fiorina. she said, look at my face. i'm proud of every single wrinkle. it's an indication of my experience. she's very quick on her feed, and not afraid to take on donald trump, and what voters have seen as derogatory comments he's made lobbed at women. i think that will be on display. the extent to which she really hits him on that issue, could it actually shake him off of his front-runner status. it will be fascinating to watch, particularly with carly fiorina in the debate this time. >> kristen welker, thanks so much. for more on the rest of the 2016 field, i've joined by howard dean, and former rnc

chairman and michael steele. high, guys, good to see you both. >> hey, alex. >> hi. >> governor, i'll reach out to you first. the new polls, nationwide, hillary clinton leading donald trump by just three points. in iowa, bernie sanders has a ten-point lead on clinton. in new hampshire, 22 points. what is happening to your candidate? >> she's doing great, i think. she's steady as she goes. bernie's running a great campai campaign. but hillary, what you see is what you get. she's incredibly capable, incredibly competent. she knows the issues. she's tough. she's got extensive foreign policy experience. and while her rhetoric is not the same as bernie's, the positions on issues are very similar in terms of things like income inequality, in terms of student loan situations, what to do about college, free college for working kids who go to public schools. so, you know, i'm not -- i think

the addition of bernie sanders in this race is a good thing, not a bad thing. i'm not worried. i think hillary is still going to win. >> michael, the trump numbers are getting serious. do you think the republican stab issuement should be preparing for a donald trump? >> this is not something that's crept up on them. there's been a steady, consistent increase in the support of that donald trump is finding among base republicans. the ones who actually turn out for caucuses and primaries. that has been a consistent growth point for him. despite the hot rhetoric and the slams that the other candidates. the base says that's okay. this is the way this is shaking out for a lot of folks at this point. when you ask them, hey, did you like what donald trump just said? they go, not really, i wouldn't have said it that way, but -- and it is that "but" that is becoming a problem for the gop right now.

people are completing the sentence with, i like him, he sounds like me, he represents what i think we need right now in government. i admire my friend howard dean for his courageous testimony on behalf of hillary clinton. but if i lost 40 points in the polls over the last month and a half, i would be a little bit more concerned. >> governor, i'm looking at "the new york times" piece which is very interesting. i'll pose it to you despite you being an acknowledged hillary supporters. democrats are looking for a plan b if hillary doesn't retain her standing. former vice president gore, another name, senator warren, another name. i mean, i know what the other three individuals outside of biden have said. but do you give any of this any credence? >> was that labeled as a news article or gossip? >> it is politics.

>> you'll see a million pieces like that. you know, i generally try to avoid commenting on gossip. >> then i guess that's a no comment. fine. michael, to you. how about the plan bs that we're talking about in this, i don't know, gossip column, political report, whatever it is, should they make republicans nervous? >> yeah. look, the republicans really need to be nervous on a number of fronts. despite what the perceived weaknesses and real weaknesses that hillary is experiencing right now in her campaign, at the end of the day, the republicans have to deal with a big blue wall. and that is the electoral college votes that are already lined up based on success democrats have had in the past two or three cycles. that's a real reality for them right now. they have to focus on that. in terms of their plan bs, whether it's, you know, candidat candidates' message, whatever it happens to be, they've got to up

the game right now. they've got to engage the american people away from sort of the one-off comments of a donald trump. he needs to get more substantive on the issues. they need to figure out how to pull away some of that support to gain ground themselves. >> governor, what does it say about the democratic party that it's, quote, white knights? the same people who have been running unsuccessfully for the past 15 years, of course, you factor in elizabeth warren. >> i'm sorry, i didn't understand the question. >> well, the question is, that there's a stereotype, the same old same old running the show there. they haven't brought in an extensive level of diversity in terms of those running the show. for the dems. >> if you look at hillary clinton's staff, you couldn't possibly say there wasn't substantial diversity. there are five african-american women that have been on her team for years and years and years. i don't know how you can even think about making such a statement like that. the only other thing i'd say, there was a really interesting poll, and i can't remember what the source was because i read it

on the net, that shows the republicans are now down to 22%, including jeb bush and marco rubio among latino voters. mitt romney couldn't win the nomination with 29%. george bush was the last one who came close to bringing in hispanic vote. that was between 35% and 40%. it's impossible for a republican to win the white house at 22% of the latino vote. i don't know how they dig themselves out from this hole. >> let's go back to the republicans here. relative to an article in the "usa today," michael, reporting iowa women, fed up with donald trump's comments. joanie ernst said, the least a candidate can do is act with respect. not appropriate anywhere. a state representative called him absurd. does this not cast a pall over the whole party? >> it starts to, i think, alex. and i think there's some real legitimacy in terms of those comments. where have they been?

those voices need to begin to rise up and really speak out. there's got to be -- look, when a lion goes after its prey, when it's one on one, the lion has the advantage. but when the herd gathers around the prey, to protect the prey, whoever that prey, or whatever that prey happens to be, it's a different scenario for the lion. you need to now look at this scenario from the standpoint of everyone recognizing, to howard's point, we're not gaining among selected groups of voters, we're losing women. we're losing hispanics. we're losing african-americans' support. how do we turn that around? we have to rally as a national party. we have to rally as candidates to say what we are, what we believe, and not have it defined the way it's been defined up to now. >> okay. i'm going to ask you guys' predictions for wednesday night's big debate. who do you think is going to win? who do you think stands the most to duane to come out of this? i'll let you go first, howard.

>> i'm the least capable person to make a prediction on the other side of the aisle. >> come on, just sprain us. >> i think carly fiorina will do well. i think she'll help herself. >> i would agree with you. michael? >> i agree with that. the watch for me is carly. i think carly has not only the opportunity to stand to gain the most ground, but to gain that ground in such a way she becomes a real -- and i think legitimate threat for the nomination. >> okay. thank you, guys. good to see you both. appreciate it. howard and michael. >> thank you. coming up, a look at the new shows heading to the fall tv lineup. f ready. ready. but demand for our cocktail bitters was huge. i could feel our deadlines racing towards us. we didn't need a loan. we needed short-term funding. fast. our amex helped us fill the orders. just like that. you can't predict it, but you can be ready. another step on the journey.

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will you raise them? >> that is an offensive stereotype. >> let's bring in dominic patton, tv critic at deadline hollywood. dominic, good to see you. >> thanks, alex, for having me. >> did you find any outstanding omp orvgs for the fall? >> some have already started. the prequel to the blockbuster the walking dead. we'll see the executioner, a new series from sons of anarchy creator. right after the emmys on the 20th, they start coming one fast and furious, as i would say. on nbc, blind spot. we'll see the return of heroes, with heroes were born, the adult muppet show. a ton of them coming. and season two of empire, the big blockbuster for the big four this year. >> i want to ask you about empire. i should say, i think nbc's putting a lot on blind spot. they're putting it in the important spot on monday nights. where the black list started out and did so well there. before i get to empire, we saw the muppets. what did you think about that one? >> i grew up with the muppets,

with debbie harry and john clees back in the '70s and '80s. this sa new one that you see a lot this year, which is kind of throwbacks. you're seeing it with the muppets, with movies like limitless getting a tv spot on cbs. super girl showing up later this year. i think people are trying to pull back to past favorites and hope they can pull them, let's say, back to the future. >> i want to get to super girl as well. but empire certainly took the audience by storm last year. i know they've added vivica fox as cookie's sister. can the music business season opera, will that resonate with viewers? >> i think empire is a cultural phenomena right now. but chris rock is going to be on it, mariah carey is going to be on it. they're going to have oprah. if lee daniels can get oprah on

there, america loves the lion family. we saw terrance howard in prison. i'm sure things are going to get rough on empire. those numbers are amazing. >> you mentioned super girl. let's take a look at that. hmm. i don't know about you, i didn't hear the audio. >> i did not. but i saw the visual. let me tell you, this show is going to be very interesting. warner brothers television, you know, warner brothers let marvel take the big screen for the super heroes. but on the small screen, warner brothers is killing it with the flash, the arrow, super girl. it will be interesting because they have gotham. when super girl debuts in october, it will go head-to-head with gotham. it will be very interesting to see how this female super hero, an icon, how it really connects.

what i saw at comic-con this summer was it was really connecting. interesting fall season in many ways. >> i want you to give me a prediction as well as i was asking my friends in the last block, what do you think will be the biggest winner this fall season. >> there's a lot out there, alex. i tell my family, i try to stay out of vegas because i try to stay off the slot machines and gambling. but there's some interesting ones out there. i think we'll see the walking dead coming back october 11th, i think we'll see that hit great numbers again. empire will come back very strong. i think we'll see interesting things with neil patrick harris with his new live variety show. i would look on the streaming services, for instance, amazon, had a tremendous hit with transport, back for a second season. they'll have man in the high castle coming. based on if the axis powers had won world war ii and take over america. the most interesting thing i think is in the new age of television, it's a look at the

way in which people are consuming it, on the multiple platforms. let me tell you, there's a lot of great tv out there, and there's a big appetite for it. >> it is a golden age, that's for sure. see you again soon. thanks. >> you, too. one man's journey to land a one-on-one interview with president obama. when your windshield needs fixed, trust safelite.

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there are about 500 days left in president obama's presidency. it might be enough time for my next guest to land an interview with him. he said he will post daily updates about the process on his youtube page. here's what happened on his first day. >> hello. >> i got kind of a random question for you. which is i'm hoping to interview the president of the united states and was hoping you could help me out with how to do that. >> i would suggest you call the white house, not the comment line, but rather the offices of

the -- to make arrangements for that. >> do you think i have any chance of getting an interview with the president? >> i have no idea. >> joining me is patrick gavin, a former reporter for politico. seriously, patrick, i was cracking up. your first day of the journey you start by calling the white house comment line. >> that kind of is the point, i kind of want to do it the way anybody would do it who doesn't necessarily have some great connection, which is google the white house and that's the number that comes up. and just see what happens. that's kind of what the goal of the experiment is. just sort of see how the process works, can anybody do it, do you have to know somebody who knows somebody, do you have to be rich. every day we'll post a video and do some research and make some phone calls. >> this will be fun to follow. what do you plan on asking the president if you get this

interview? how would it stand out from all the others? like the podcast ones or the fern? >> my goal is that, to be honest, i don't expect to get an interview anytime soon. i think getting an interview should be difficult. if i am lucky enough, it should happen around the 500th day. if i'm lucky enough, that will be around when obama is leaving. i'll be interested in asking about house resolution 495 or whatever is going on on capitol hill, and getting a sense of him as a person, especially a person leaving the white house, than as a politician, with some specific policy going on on capitol hill. >> what will you do to earn the interview? >> every day i'm making these videos. in fact, we've got my camera here, i'm making one right now. >> okay. >> part of it is, i need to learn a little bit about how the process works, talk to reporters, talk to folks at msnbc, nbc, how they do it, learn a little bit more about obama, bone up on the issues,

show that i'm interested, show that this isn't just a joke, that this isn't just a gimmick. if you do do the work, to show if you put in the time and effort, is that enough to land an interview with the president in the 500 days. even if you do that, do you have to sort of have 7 million twitter followers or be a celebrity, or be somebody famous. that's kind of the big debate we'll probably find out at the end of 500 days. >> you know what, patrick, we'll check in regularly along this quest, okay? we'll have you back. >> give me tips on what i should do. >> i haven't landed a president obama interview either. if i do it, maybe i'll bring you in with me. >> get to the back of the line i guess, right? >> i'm in that line, too. thank you very much. >> alex, appreciate it. a new article says a crisis worse than the iran nuclear program. what are they? how often we were changing the roll. it really started to add up. so we switched to charmin. with more go's in every roll, charmin ultra mega roll equals mega value.

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head-to-head, poll-to-poll, the battle between clinton and

trump. >> this is main street middletown. this is an entire apartment complex getting ready to go. >> fear in california. after 40 square miles burn up by an explosive wildfire. there have been riots, attempts by people to escape. all of this could get a lot worse in the coming days. >> crisis at the border. "dateline" aungary. hungary. hey there, everyone, welcome to "weekends with alex witt." a bit past 1:00 p.m. here in the east, 10:00 a.m. out west. today, the polls are in. the big numbers, hillary clinton and donald trump are now neck and neck nationwide with clinton just three points ahead at 46%. but clinton's saving grace may actually be the thing that has her campaign most worried, likabili likability. 75% of americans have a positive view of clinton. among republicans, donald trump

is at 28%. he didn't seem worried about it in a new interview today. >> the problem we have is we're so politically correct, that we can't get out of our way. >> well, democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders is showing new strength in some key early states. but hillary clinton stays pretty strong in the south. a new cbs news poll shows bernie sanders with more than 50% support for new hampshire democrats. hillary clinton at 32%. joe biden at 9%. in iowa, the same poll finds sanders at 43%. clinton at 33%. vice president biden at 10%. battleground south carolina, mrs. clinton still leads with 46%, sanders is at 23%, joe biden 22%. let's bring in nbc's kristen welker at the white house for us. kristen, you've been covering the clinton campaign on a nearly

daily basis there. >> reporter: let's start with secretary clinton, alex. they have always said this is going to be a competitive primary. but this is likely more competitive than they were anticipating. the fact that you see bernie sanders leading in iowa and new hampshire, i think surprising not only the clinton campaign, sanders himself, but a lot of people throughout the political world. secretary clinton had said she's retooling her campaign to some extent. you're going to see a more human side to her. she's also more aggressively trying to answer some of these questions about her e-mails. she's more aggressively going after republicans, alex. we've seen that in recent days as well. as she tries to turn the page on this e-mail controversy. look, if you're inside the bernie sanders campaign, you like what you see. sanders campaign officials saying they're trying to ramp up his ground game. secretary clinton still far outpaces all of her democratic rivals when it comes to fund-raising, and when it comes to her organizing on the ground. bernie sanders himself said he

was stunned by the pace of this surge that we've seen in recent weeks. and then if you're vice president joe biden, as you know, alex, he's been considering getting into the race for quite some time. this is one more factor that pushes you toward the "yes" column. the vice president said multiple times over this past week, and in recent weeks, that he just doesn't know if he has it in him because he's still very much mourning the loss of his son, beau. i think this is one more poll that is shaking things up and making this a more competitive primary than a lot of people had anticipated, alex. >> i want to ask you something about the clinton campaign. the "washington post" saying it may be retrieving the e-mails. do you think clinton's ever going to be able to put this controversy behind her? >> reporter: that october 22nd date, when clinton is going to testify, before a congressional committee, about her e-mails, about benghazi, that will be the moment when she's able to really put all of this behind her.

they think she's going to do very well. that's what they're anticipating. but alex, the reality is, there's still an fbi investigation. the state department continues to release her e-mails on a routine basis. so this is something that continues to make headlines, and will continue to make headlines well beyond that october 22nd deadline. i think the real question is, when will the fbi investigation conclude, and what will they find, i think that's when she'll really be able to put this behind her if it wraps up in a way that favors her, alex. >> kristen, thank you so much from the white house. the gridiron, donald trump taking a break from the campaign trail after he and several other candidates went tailgating at one of the biggest college football rivalry games. katie tur has the story. >> reporter: the weather is changing, as you can see, and the candidates are starting to focus on the early states. the first of which being iowa. it's the super bowl of iowa college football.

iowa versus iowa state. but saturday the drama on the field was rivaled by the political mud slinging on the campaign trail. from here in ames, at the tailgate with rand paul -- >> we're going to make sure everybody knows donald trump is a fake. >> reporter: -- to new hampshire and carly fiorina. >> donald trump is an entertainer. and i think i am a leader. >> reporter: both taking an aim at the billionaire to bolster their own standing. the summer may be over, and with it the silly season of politics. but the 2016 race for the white house is showing no signs of growing up, as policy continues to take a back seat to insults. the sharp tongue spearheaded by donald trump himself. >> somebody will attack. somebody like a rand paul. >> reporter: all the attention was on him. first, at a rally in boonee. then the hawkeyes at the tailgate. >> the football game is serious.

trump is not serious. >> i think he's got the right ideas. i think he'll steer the country in a right direction. >> reporter: also at the game marco rubio. >> people want to know what life is like in the real word and ideas how to get through it. >> reporter: not to mention scott walker who just a month ago was famously confident in his backyard state of iowa. but is now polling at 3% here. or tenth place. canceling events in california, to refocus on the state. so far, an uphill battle for him and the other veteran politicians. as voters continue to reject the status quo. >> pretty much it says they're looking for an outsider. it does say that, no question about it. >> reporter: on everyone's mind, the debate on wednesday. just what will trump say or opponents say to take him down a nomp. >> that was katie tur from the campaign trail. just a few minutes from now, the carly fiorina factor, the political panel will weigh in on

that a bit later. developing in northern california, state of emergency in lake and napa counties as the so-called valley fire explodes in size. this wildfire burning about 100 miles or so north of san francisco has now charred more than 40,000 acres in less than 24 hours. and it is forcing thousands to flee their homes. nbc's gadi schwartz is in middletown, california, for the latest. gadi, it is just awful. i cannot believe the pictures you're providing. >> reporter: yes, alex, looking behind me, the devastation here is utterly unbelievable. the fire is still burning. this is what's left of an apartment complex, a building right here. you see there is some type of play structure. that's one of the only things that's really standing. as we pan over, this was the apartment complex. you see some cars still intact inside of the parking lot. but everything else has basically been destroyed. this was a multiple -- a

two-level apartment complex, completely brought down to rubble. and it's as far as the eye can see. destruction across the street. destruction over to the right. destruction over to the left. this fire was extremely selective. of course, a lot of that had to do with firefighters getting in here and doing structure protection. many of these particular are areas were being heavily defended by firefighters last night. we saw firefighters trying to prevent fire from spreading into this apartment complex. take a look over there, there's some more homes that have been burned. and then there's some townhomes that are still intact. there is some hope for some of the structures here in middletown. but the images are absolutely incredible. last night, it was a massive inferno as we drove through. we got in about midnight. everywhere we looked, there were fires that were catching, whole subdivisions going up in flames. so very difficult for the residents here in middletown. we understand that parts of

cobb, another town nearby, have seen the same level of destruction. but just very, very difficult to wrap your mind around how much destruction there is, alex. >> i've got to say, gadi, i was surprised you were able to get that close to the burning fires. was that scary for you? and how hot was that? >> reporter: alex, it's still hot. we can feel the heat. it's hard to see right here. there's plasma, and heat coming off of these embers. and there's heat waves. you can actually see the heat waves here. last night, it was even hotter. we were in the car and we could feel the heat hitting our faces. the heat coming through the windows. so, yeah, it was pretty terrifying, really. but there were firefighters all around, and they were kind of hopscotching around town trying to find the areas that they could protect. they were very overwhelmed. alex, get this, in the middle of this firefight, last night, all of the hydrants in town went completely dry. so these firefighters had to ration their water that they had

on their trucks in these tankers, and in some of these tenders, and use that very, very sparingly. but that's still the situation out here. they did not have water in those hydrants. so they're having to bring all that water in, alex. >> to think about what the firefighters are doing, they deserve every penny they're making. thank you, gadi. awful to see. currently firefighters are battling 33 large wildfires across the country. they've burned about 1.5 million acres. overall, the total number of wildfires so far this year, exceeds 45,000, burning 8.6 million acres. that is more than 13,000 square miles, or imagine this, more than four times the size of new york city. another migrant tragedy in europe. at least 28 people, half of them babies and children, drowned off greece today while crossing from turkey. more than 127 people were onboard a wooden boat when it capsized. and this is the scene along the

ha hungarian/serbian border. they're waiting to get on buses bound for austria. that's where richard engel is standing by for us. richard? >> reporter: alex, things here are still quite tense along the serbian/hungarian border. police forces are corralling people so they can be loaded on to buses. a lot of these people do not want to get on these buses. they don't want to be fingerprinted, they don't want to be kept in these lines and they don't want to be separated from their families, because that is also happening as people get on one bus, sometimes children are taken from their parents. they are separated. so a lot of these people are incredibly nervous. and that is why we see so many cops here. because there have been riots. there have been attempts by people to escape. and all of this could get a lot worse in the coming days, because hungary has promised to dramatically increase the security presence in this border area, sending police, sending more soldiers.

because once hungary finishes 100-mile-long border fence in this area, then the police and soldiers will have extraordinary new powers. they'll be allowed to use more aggressive riot and crowd control methods, including rubber bullets, tear gas. and if troops feel that their lives are in danger, live ammunition as well. alex? >> richard engel, thank you for that. nbc news nightly anchor lester holt, he is now in hungary. he's got the firsthand accounts of the desperate journey of the migrants. look for his live coverage tomorrow, and of course on "nbc nightly news." still ahead, what james blake wants from the police after his alleged rough treatment by an undercover police officer. just pick a size. small, medium, large and extra large. if you need less data, pick small. if you need more, go with extra large-- a whopping 12 gigs for $80 a month plus $20 per phone.

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show," and you're the front-runner by far for the republican party. to be president of the united states. when can this happen? when did this happen? when -- >> something happened to both of us. >> donald trump says he brings ratings and he surely did that on friday night. his appearance on the "tonight show" drew 4.5 million viewers. that is jimmy fallon's highest ratings in 18 months. on to dallas tomorrow for the donald for what he's calling a huge event. about 17,000 people have snapped up all the tickets to the free event. some of them tried to sell their tickets on ebay for as much as close to 100 bucks. carly fiorina is getting ready for her stage debut on wednesday. >> donald trump is an entertainer. and i think i am a leader. >> we're going to make sure everybody in america knows donald trump is a fake.

>> i'm getting ready to go and answer the questions. >> we're going to be aggressive. and get our message out. >> my whole life is preparation for a debate. think about it, what's preparing for debate? >> the nice thing is i'll be center stage this time so it will be more difficult for them to ignore me. >> well, he is going to be front and center all right. right next to donald trump. the nine other candidates will be seated based on how they've been doing in the recent polling. joining me is betsy woodruff, a. there's this new cbs poll showing donald trump at 40% in new hampshire, ben carson right behind him. not right behind him, but behind him at 12%. in iowa, trump leading by 29%. by four points. in south carolina, trump is at 36%. do you, betsy, think donald

trump has to change things up for the debate to maintain the numbers? ben carson is catching up. >> you know, what he's doing right now is working out for him. if i was advising trump on strategy, i don't know how you could tell him to change what he's doing. the most i'm excited to watch is how well ben carson does. he was kind of muted at the last debate, understated, calm, the opposite of combative. it will be fun to see the little bit of sparring he's done with trump brings out a different side we haven't seen, or he decides on being mr. nice guy. >> how does carly fiorina fit in? >> carly fiorina doesn't fight dirty, but she's shown excitement and verve going after trump. trump said he didn't like her face, that her face isn't -- that's a remarkable thing to say. and her response was great. her response was, i'm proud of every line and wrinkle. i don't know how you could give a rejoinder that is more effective from a strategic view.

it will be interesting to see it. >> jonathan, what do you expect to see wednesday overall? >> i think you're going to see a lot more attention to ben carson. he's obviously a study in contrast with donald trump in terms of style. one totally overstated, donald trump having a huge event in dallas, or says it's a huge event. i actually think it's a yuge event, with a "y." ben carson on the other side, very understated, yet both doing well with the republican primary voters. it will be interesting to see the increased scrutiny on carson has a negative or positive effect. >> let's listen to what ben carson himself says is needed to be the next president. >> you know what, do we have it? yes, no? let's roll it. >> you have to be humble enough to be able to listen to other

people and recognize that sometimes they might actually know more than you do. and be able to integrate that. >> gee, i wonder who he's talking about right there in terms of contrasting. do you think this is part of carson's appeal, jonathan? do you think humility could carry him to the white house? >> i think it's possible. there's a significant portion of the republican party that isn't in love with donald trump and isn't in love with the so-called insider candidates. ben carson's got an opportunity there. i think he's got an opportunity to try to peel some people away from donald trump who have been there because trump has been the most prominent outsider. i think there's a good strategy for him. >> betsy, in terms of what happened this week when rick perry announced he was suspending his campaign. who do you think is going to drop out next? >> look, rick perry is -- was trying to balance two competing personas. on the one hand, trying to be the smart, intelligent guy with

glasses, who knew what he was talking about, hobnobbed with think tank experts, but on the other hand being the cowboy texas type. he had trouble doing both at once. the reality was he could never really grab the spotlight at all and unable to shake the terrible and unfortunately for him the very amusing mistake he made in the last debate when he was running for president in the previous cycle. donald trump has changed the parameters of the debate, raised the bar to what gets attention and rick perry couldn't do it. >> jonathan, as we shift gears to bernie sanders. he's speaking at liberty university tomorrow. while the new msnbc poll shows he's pretty likable among democrats, 28% of them say they don't know his name. we three might find that surprising, given his tenure in politics, but how much of a problem do you think this is for the sanders campaign? >> i think it's a sign of opportunity there for him, that he's doing so well in iowa and

new hampshire and yet we see that such a large percentage of the democratic party still doesn't know him. i actually think that speaks to a possible opportunity. that said, we look at the iowa and new hampshire polling, and what we still haven't seen from bernie sanders is the ability to get outside of white voters basically, to get to african-american voters, to the latino voters. we've seen it in south carolina, in polling in california that came out today. he hasn't made his case yet. >> jonathan and betsy, thank you, guys. good to see you. on this first football sunday of the nfl season, fantasy sports players hope to win a fortune. that's next.

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bounty. the long-lasting quicker picker upper. welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." former tennis star james blake is calling for more action in the manner that he was mistakenly arrested. he said one of the next steps should be firing the plain clothes police officer seen on surveillance video right there taking him down outside of a new york city hotel on wednesday. nbc's kristen dahlgren has the story. >> basically i'm okay. the emotional stars are a little more -- take a little more time to heal. >> reporter: james blake has faced tough opponents on the tennis court. but last wednesday he was tackled by an undercover police officer while he was standing outside a manhattan hotel. what goes through your mind after that? are you scared? >> i was very scared. never once was there officer stated, i'm officer so-and-so,

never a name given. >> reporter: police thought blake was a suspect in a credit card theft ring. >> look at this badge, it's in my pocket here. it shows i was a player with the u.s. open. i have nothing to do with whatever you guys are looking for. >> reporter: blake said he was handcuffed for ten minutes. he doesn't blame racial profiling, but said it was excessive force. >> it was completely unnecessary, whether i was a criminal or not. >> reporter: the officer in the video is now on modified duty, awaiting an investigation. he was already facing two pending excessive force lawsuits. when you hear about a history of complaints against this officer, what do you think? >> it makes me wonder why he was out on the street and given this position to begin with. >> reporter: both new york mayor bill de blasio and william bratten have apologized and agreed to meet with blake. >> i'm lucky to be in a position i'm in. i also talked to a lot of people in the last few days who had similar situations happen to them. they need to be apologized to. >> reporter: he's considering a lawsuit if changes aren't made. >> this happened to me, it can

happen to anyone. and we can't let that keep happening. >> reporter: kristen dahlgren, nbc news, new york. let's bring in msnbc national correspondent joy reed, author of the newly published book "fracture." joy, is this emblematic, do you think this situation, the relationship between african-americans and police in much of this country? >> yeah, absolutely. this is something that african-americans have come to see far too often, with no accountability. "the new york times" is reporting there were seven civilian review board complaints against the same officer. but nothing actually gets done, doesn't get put on modified duty until a famous -- he's got civil cases pending. multiple complaints. he's still allowed to do plain clothes duty. and not until a famous person gets caught up in it does he then get put on desk duty. i think this shows the nypd, although stop-and-frisk has been put aside, has a long way to go.

>> blake doesn't think this is racial profiling. what is it? >> his concern is the force that was used, not that he was singled out because of his race. they were looking for somebody who clearly must have looked something like him. so i can see his point on that. the point is, even if he had been the person they were looking for, this was excessive force for the level of crime. this wasn't a violent criminal they were looking for. it was a credit card fraud case. why was that much force used, number one. number two, why didn't the officers identify themselves as police during that arrest. >> he said he didn't show a badge. >> it's according to our constitution, a person's civil rights should include an officer identifying themselves as an officer. >> look how much we're talking about situations like this, the aggressive nature by police, and has this changed the way they have to approach their daily lives? it's become so much more apparent. >> one would think that this would change the way police departments train officers. that you have to treat members

of the public with respect. police officers are part of the government. they do work for the public. and you have these instances where units of the police are allowed to operate in this fashion. this reminds me of the giuliani area, the jump-outs where plain clothes officers can accost someone without identifying themselves. the public needs to step forward and weigh in on how we want the police to treat us. at the end of the day they are working for the public. >> in your book, you write about the expectations once barack obama was elected president, and that the discourse would change, and that action would follow. what's happened? >> i think what's happened is that we've had this conversation on race, it's become a thing that we keep saying we're going to have. when barack obama gets elected, you have the two different sets of expectations. african-americans thought we would finally litigate this racial past, that includes many, many, many decades of riots that have been sparked by police killings. within the white community, particularly among white

liberals, and white republicans who voted for barack obama, there was a sense he would mean we're past that period in our history and he would sort of wave a wand over the united states and declare us all now healed. neither of those expectations were fully met. i think that's why we have this ongoing conflict in conversation. >> the book tracks the democratic party's makeup from the civil rights movement all the way to the bill clinton presidency. hillary clinton, what's her role in all this? >> it's interesting, because hillary has had the biggest swing in her character arc as a public figure. she starts out as the goldwater girl republican teenager, then she becomes this feminist, very liberal powerful female figure in her young life as a college student. really swings all the way to the left. and then we get to the 1990s, and she is now the wife of a president of the united states whose career path was really framed by moving the democratic party to the right. by rebuking jesse jackson in front of jesse jackson's own

home audience, by becoming the tough on crime party, and passing this massive bill for reform. this woman comes in as this powerful first lady through health care reform, to getting rebuked on that and settling into a traditional first lady role. we have a hillary clinton who by 2008 is in the mold of this kind of more conservative new democrat. well, now the left is back. the mcgovernite wing of the party, black activism is back. where does hillary clinton fit into that democratic party? i think that's a huge question. >> do you think she has the ability to appeal to the african-american group in general, the way bill clinton did? with him, it seemed just natural. he was called the first black president. we call him that all the time. >> she doesn't have the natural political gifts. she didn't grow up in the south. part of being a southern governor is balancing white rural politics and black politics. bill clinton can do it effortlessly. hillary clinton doesn't have the natural gifts, she's not a southerner. she doesn't have the natural

comfort level speaking in public extemporaneously. she's a controlled, guarded person. but she still has the clinton name. that surname is helping her, and that history is helping her. she has the vast majority of the support among african-american voters, which is why bernie sanders can't catch up to her nationally like hawaiowa or new hampshire. she will have to directly address some of the issues that are on the table. >> do you think bernie sanders has the capacity to build on what he's doing? you saw him yesterday, he was at a traditionally largely black college. it seems like he's well aware. he talks about the injustices in his own life and the fact that he grew up in some pretty tough challenging situations. he's trying to speak out. does he have the capability to surpass the clinton name do you think? >> i think he doesn't right now. i think the problem for bernie sanders, if you look in the polling, the unknown factor, the fact he's not known to a third or more of the -- >> 28% of people in general.

>> that's right. name i.d. is expensive. one thing we know about politics, you have to buy name i.d. he'll have to fund raise at an accelerated level into name recognition. hillary clinton already has it. she has universal name i.d. just by hillary, she doesn't even need a last name. for african-americans, she's a more known quantity. he has a long way to go. >> what about the conservative candidate of ben carson? what's your interpretation of how he's playing? >> what's interesting about ben carson is he starts out going back to his early career as a neurosurgeon, as this really respected figure in black households. maybe not universally known, but people know the gifted hands story. he's spent a lot of that capital and lost a lot of that capital because of the way he's treated the current president, quite frankly. he's joined the republican core in trying to embarrass and lecture the first black president in a way that has really hurt his esteem among

african-americans. i don't think he would do much better than any standard issue republican where he's a nominee. >> one more plug for the book. fracture, barack obama, the clintons and racial divide. what i like best about it is the full name. i've called you that from the beginning. >> we're family. >> i know we are. >> you guys don't even know the half of it. okay. joy ann reid, thank you, my friend. >> thank you. i appreciate it. isis versus iran, the new report examines seven middle east crises greater than iran's nuclear program. life of now

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as thousands of syrians stream out of their war-torn homeland and cross into europe, general john allen struck an optimistic tone in a new interview today. >> where we were a year ago today, i wasn't sure how it was going to unfold. it was not clear to me even that iraq would survive this. in the intervening months, we've seen remarkable progress in many

respects. >> joining me now is the "washington post" reporter. a welcome to you. i love this new article that you've written. it looks at seven middle east crises that you argue are a bigger problem than iran's nuclear program which you said has sucked up all the foreign policy oxygen in washington. it should be no surprise the first two are syria and isis that you mentioned. what's your reaction to what general allen just said? >> well, i think, you know, he's spinning it off optimistically, but he didn't really sound that optimistic from his reading. there's been the u.s.-led air campaign against the islamic state in iraq, and syria has gone for over a year now, very, very deliberately targeted a lot of targets in the region. and yet we're not really seeing considerable defeats suffered yet by the islamic state. cities like mosul are firmly in their hands. even the iraqi city of ramadi is nowhere close to falling either. i think there are a lot of

reasons to are pessimistic, and a bit frustrated by the entrenched conflict we're seeing in this part of the world. >> do you think it was that the iran deal stole the attention from syria and iraq, or has this always been a war the u.s. did not want to touch? >> well, i think the real point is that it's a crisis that people are working on. but in terms of the foreign policy conversation in washington, the iran deal has sucked up, as i said, sucked up all the oxygen in the last couple months and it's really going to shadow the whole election campaign in the year ahead. the point which is a very simple point is that if you're genuinely concerned about the security and stability of the middle east, you should probably pay attention to some of the far more vexing challenges experienced by many of those countries. >> one on the list is israeli-palestinian conflict there. when secretary kerry first came in, it seemed this was his top priority. now, as you know, israeli

relations with the u.s., generations alone, we're seeing more and more violence. what happened there? >> his big initiative to kick-start the peace process, and talks between the israelis and palestinians interlocuteurs is allowed by april of 2014. in that summer thereafter, there was this hideous grinding 50-day conflict in gaza, which saw hundreds die. you see by and large, i mean, the rising government of benjamin netanyahu has ministers among its own cabinet who don't really believe in the two-state solution. which is, you know, giving the creation of an independent viable palestinian state. you have a lot of disarray and dysfunction in the palestinian camp as well. this is a whole process that's going nowhere. for the u.s., the two-state solution has been an article of faith for many successive administrations. it's a huge problem that's kind

of on a back burner now. >> you have the war in yemen, the kurds, corrupt states, egypt's political unrest. do you see opportunities still remaining for the u.s. and other global powers to step in? >> well, obviously interventions pose risks, and have their own blowbacks. but more attention does need to be paid to some of the real political crises in the region. from failing states in governments, and corrupt governance in countries like iraq and lebanon, to, you know, the real crisis of democracy in parts of the region. egypt was once hailed as a great arab swing hope, has completely backslid. and countries like libya who are totally falling apart. when it comes to really worrying about peace and security in this part of the world, the iran -- the punitive nuclear threat of iran is not the only problem. >> the "washington post," a great article. thank you so much.

>> thank you. he was a legendary genius in the entertainment world, but his struggles to make it all happen, that's next. at ally bank no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like mute buttons equal danger. ...that sound good? not being on this phone call sounds good. it's not muted. was that you jason? it was geoffrey! it was jason. it could've been brenda.

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a new film in theaters shows what life was like for walt disney before he invented mickey mouse and became famous. "walt before mickey" shows how he started hiring animators to make his dream happen. >> what do you think? >> it's a barn. >> it's our company headquarters. >> but it's a barn. >> i have been developing the latest technique in animation. for get about that cut-out method we were using. we're going to create cartoons. >> three of disney's animation companies went belly-up before

his ah-ha moment about a little mouse. >> i got it. mortimer the mouse. he goes on adventures. he's innocent and trustworthy. he's very well intentioned. >> as you all know, mortimer became mickey and of course the rest is history. joining me now, armando g gutierrez and taylor grey who both star in "kawalt before mickey." we see you a lot. you are the producer but you also star in the film. >> he co-created mickey mouse and was walt's best friend from kansas city before walt disney company was starting. he stayed for a very long time. he eventually left well after mickey mouse was created and snow white. but he went to do his own thing, then came back.

>> but friends all throughout. success certainly did not come easy to didisney. we see a scene where walt could not even make payroll. >> this is ridiculous. >> is there a problem, frizz? >> your bad checks are the problem, walt. it is the second time this month. >> there must be a problem at bank. >> problem at the bank? it is a repeat performance of kansas city all over again. i'm tired of it, walt. i need the money. >> look, the disney name is so associated with success. were you surprised to learn about these failures before he became so huge? >> oh, yeah. i grew up thinking disney was the biggest thing ever. and to find out how hard it was to really fulfill his dream was really incredible to hear. i had no idea. >> i know that your character eventually left, went on to find his own success. >> he created bug's bunny, porky pig, tweety bird. and i think four academy awards for all of his cartoons and animations.

frizz freeling went on to create a lot of what we know in cartoons. >> did he also maintain a close relationship with diz in i? >> he separated from disney. they stayed in touch -- >> they were competitors at warner brothers. >> why do you think it's taken this long to put a movie together that shows really the difficulties? there was that terrific movie with tom hanks and emma thompson, that was fantastic but that didn't at all address that. that was about putting together mary poppins. >> it is based on a book "walt before mickey," and it was the first book that actually covered in detail those years. those are dark years for disney, well before the success when he went bankrupt, when he was struggling, when -- fritz's character quit on him because he was bouncing checks. but it is also a very interesting moments when you realize what kind of character walt had and the values that he had. he had a dream.

if you've ever had a dream, you know it is hard to achieve. walt did izny had a dream. he had to fail several times before he made it. >> is it apparent to you when he had that ah-ha moment, you went this is it with mickey mouse? >> it was actually right before he was about to fail again and go into bankruptcy again. so out of necessity -- >> what a secinderella story! >> yeah. out of necessity he needed a character. he didn't have an option, otherwise he was going bankrupt. this time it wasn't just him losing his job. it was him, his brother, his wife, my character. so out of necessity he remembered his pet mouse and whatever inspired him to get to that moment to create mickey mouse which was obviously a huge success. >> how much fun did you have making this film? >> are you kidding? it was a blast. we got to do crazy voices. it was an amazing cast. it was a great time. >> i am excited to see this film. "walt before mickey." good to see you both. well done producing and acting as well.

>> yeah, look at him. >> lack look at you both. it is all good. >> you did voices. >> that's a wrap of this sunday edition of "weekends with alex witt." do stay with us for headline updates and breaking news. ah, t for drawing, flo. house! car! oh, raise the roof! no one? remember when we used to raise the roof, diane? oh, quiet, richard, i'm trying to make sense of flo's terrible drawing. i'll draw the pants off that thing. oh, oh, hats on hamburgers! dancing! drive-in movie theater! home and auto. lamp! squares. stupid, dumb. lines. [ alarm rings ] no! home and auto bundle from progressive. saves you money. yay, game night, so much fun. ♪ verizon has backup generators for most of their towers, so they're ready if the power ever goes down. (bird screeching) i wonder why they save those backups... and not just put them in the regular rotation. i bet if they just had the chance,

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the second republican debate, it may be now or never for some candidates. at least they are acting that way. are we starting to hear the sound of desperation on the stump? >> he says kanye west is great. why is kanye west great? because kanye west likes trump. >> chris christie barely qualified for in week's debate. can he make a comeback? the governor joins me live. >> reporter: plus, after the summer of trump -- >> we are led by very, very stupid people. >> is the gop about to split in two. with congressional republicans the tea party's fall guys. >> majority leader mitch mcconnell and speaker john boehner. >> also.